Archive for the ‘China’ Category

Obama’s Visit to China Culminates in Clean Energy Relations on Many Fronts

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

It appears that President Obama’s visit to China culminated in more than one partnership/program between the two nations to usher in serious changes for the world’s environmental future. An article on ENS website stated the two presidents “welcomed significant steps forward to advance policy dialogue and practical cooperation on climate change, energy and the environment,” building on a previous agreement reached in July.

While neither president was compelled to disclose their final positions going into Copenhagen’s Climate Change Summit next month nor did they declare any numerical emissions targets, they publicly agreed that the outcome at Copenhagen “should include emission reductions targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.” Of course they acknowledged that responsibilities will be different for every country and based on respective capabilities of those countries.

What peaked my attention in all of this is that the U.S. and China both agreed that whatever happens in Copenhagen the “outcome should also substantially scale up financial assistance to developing countries; promote technology development, dissemination and transfer; pay particular attention to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change[].” So the U.S. and China agree with financial assistance to developing countries the subject of a recent blog of mine about Third World countries demanding climate reparations in the form of financial assistance from developed countries. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2009/11/u-s-out-of-step-with-climate-debt-issues/.

I’m not sure whether President Obama or President Hu of China agrees with the concept of these climate reparations per se but they did agree on the financial assistance to poorer countries. I’m just wondering how Obama is going to break this news to climate skeptics divided again along party lines when these skeptics won’t even admit man is creating the climate problem. As I said, many in the U.S. are in a misstep with the rest of the world concerning climate change.
Meanwhile, the two presidents hashed out quite a cooperative between the U.S. and China on many fronts. The article listed six initial elements:

1) Establishment of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center

2) The launch of the U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative

3) The launch of a new U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Action Plan

4) The pledge to promote cooperation on cleaner uses of coal, including large-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects

5) The launch of a new U.S.-China Shale Gas Resource Initiative

6) U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program

There is more launching going on with that list then at Cape Kennedy, which is all well and good since so many arguments that keep the U.S. from moving forward on climate initiatives center around pointing the finger at China’s pollution. But considering Americans are contrary, and big polluting industries are gearing up for a fight against cleaning up our act, it’s going to be a big upward struggle to get moving—China or no China.

Read the details: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2009/2009-11-17-01.asp.

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Posted in Alternative Energy, China, Conservation, Energy, Energy Infrastructure, Environment and Jobs, Environmental News Service, Environmentalism, Federal Government, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Industry, Politics, Pollution | No Comments »

China and U.S. Partnership for Clean Energy Research

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Right after I read about Baoding China being the first city to go really green in China, I also found this article about the U.S. and China partnering for clean energy research. The article on ABC New’s website stated this effort is a compromise between the two governments that disagree on whether China should join wealthier nations in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WireStory?id=8085845&page=1.

According to the article: “With initial financing of $15 million and headquarters in both countries, the center will focus on coal and clean buildings and vehicles, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. It highlights potential U.S.-Chinese cooperation in an industry that Washington says could create thousands of jobs.” It certainly garnered thousands of jobs for Baoding China.

Oddly, I happened to catch the Emmy nominated interview between Fareed Zakaria of CNN and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday about the same time. Wen offered insight as to why China does not respond to the rest of the world’s assertion that they are a super power and should be more proactive and involved politically around the world. Wen said China is not a super power by any means. He said although China is moving fast with their economy and social reform, there are far more rural areas that are below par compared to China’s major cities.

And while we see China as communist, Wen seemed to describe China as more socialist/capitalist—think Hong Kong here. Fareed asked if Wen thought socialism could support a free market system? Wen explained there are visible workings of a free market and the invisible. The best scenario is a balanced free market through guidance and regulation by government. Wen sighted the book A Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith as an ideal. It is considered the first modern work of economics and Smith is considered to be the father of modern economics. A central belief of Smith is that labor is the measure of a nation’s wealth not it’s stores of gold and silver. Sound’s like China.

Both countries are hoping to avoid trade barriers by working together. The article stated: “China is promoting solar, wind and hydroelectric power to reduce reliance on imported oil and gas, which its communist leaders see as a strategic weakness. But Beijing has rejected binding emissions commitments, saying it is the responsibility of rich countries to cut their own output.” Again, they do not view themselves as a super power.

The whole time Wen was talking so candidly about the future, he made sense, and actually seemed charming. China will certainly be promoting a much greener economy since this interview took place before the breaking story about Baoding China’s resourceful turnaround from an auto and manufacturing center to a major supplier of solar and green tech products. This puts China is a position ahead of us already, super power or not. We’re still haggling over whether a turnaround away from polluting industry to a green driven economy will work, while China did it and knows that it not only works, but is also high profitable. It creates those better than gold jobs.

However, as smart and innocent as Wen appeared to be in the interview, and as I found myself agreeing with him on certain assertions about trade, and labor, the mantra going on in my mind was Tibet, Tibet, Tibet. Look what China did and continues to do to those innocent and wonderful people and the pristine land they maintained for centuries high in the Himalayas. China will surely pollute that area too. Fareed addressed Tibetan issues in this interview also and the answer was still pretty hard-line. On top of Tibet, what about China’s attempts to march on Taiwan as it has so many times before?

The interview is a good look at how China thinks. Fareed began the interview with Wen by asking how the Chinese feel about the state of the U.S. economy considering we owe China so much money. It was the million-dollar question over a possible default in payment if things don’t recover quickly here. Wen assured that China has confidence the U.S. will return to prosperity. It wants to help the U.S meet that goal. It looks as if this partnership for clean energy research might just be China’s way of pushing us to that prosperity—for China’s own sake. Make no mistake, China is out for number one always.

Watch some of the interview even though it is not about the environment per se, it is a good snapshot of China, a country we will soon partner with for clean energy research.

Posted in Alternative Energy, CO2 Emissions, China, Conservation, Environment and Jobs, Environmentalism, Federal Government, Green Construction, Green Products, Industry, Pollution | 5 Comments »

While We Continue to Argue About Global Warming; China Finds Going Green Very Profitable

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Uh oh. I just read this article on ABC News website, http://abcnews.go.com/International/JustOneThing/Story?id=8327868&page=1, about Baoding China reinventing itself from an automobile/textile city to a green hub that is so prosperous it will probably become a model city pretty quick. The Chinese are very industrious people and Chinese officials like profit. The Mayor of Baoding Yu Quns has shown them that going green is unbelievably doable and profitable in short time. So you see where the “Uh oh” comes in? While we’re arguing about global warming, the Chinese will be terribly busy doing what they do best—copy and improve on a massive scale what Yu Quns did in Baoding, another missed opportunity for the U.S to become a leader.

Yu’s style of transformation was drastic but Baoding let industrial pollution go on for so long that drastic measures were necessary. Yu saw thousands of dead fish floating in Baoding’s largest lake. Yu took action and closed down “several hundred factories whose pollution was to blame. The city lost 2% in annual economic growth. That’s a high price to pay. In the U.S. this would be political suicide. Our fossil fuel industry would destroy the guy. But Yu learned a lesson that we should grasp quickly: “Polluting first and cleaning up later is very expensive…So we [Baoding] chose renewable energy to replace traditional industry.”

The ABC news info went on to say, “In three years, Yu has transformed Baoding from an automobile and textile town into the fastest-growing hub of solar, wind, and biomass energy-equipment makers in China. Baoding now has the highest growth rate of any city in Hebei Province. Its “Electricity Valley” industrial cluster – consciously modeled on Silicon Valley – has quadrupled its business.” Uh, oh.

Heaven forbid this story gets around in the U.S. that environmentalists and the Obama Administration are on the right track attempting to turnover polluting industry in America to clean renewables and at the same time create thousands of jobs for a big profit in a short time, (I’m being facetious). Of course there will be much dissing over here about what Yu accomplished over there blah, blah, blah. It’s not like Yu didn’t come up against opposition in the form of COMMUNIST PARTY LEADERS, yet he prevailed. We can’t get past the argument about being responsible for pollution that affects our climate. Those that pollute win the argument here. What’s wrong with this picture? It shows the power of polluting industry doesn’t it?

On that note, be prepared for new “Tea Party” like grass roots protests across America waging war against environmentally sound progress. The protests are backed by the fossil fuel industry as the heat is on against cleaner air, water, and new industry that might disrupt the status quo. They are called “Energy Citizens” rallies. http://current.com/items/90713635_big-oil-trade-groups-plans-to-recruit-employees-to-attend-anti-clean-energy-rallies.htm. All the while China quietly continues to build on a money making turnaround. The big fear here should be that they emerge as the new green powered super power, and ideal model for other countries? Uh, oh—again.

Watch the following video of the flip side of China with the Dirtiest City on Earth:

You can see the pollution in hot spots like this all over the earth, but naysayers till maintain human pollution doesn’t affect atmospheric conditions, suuuuuuuuure. The video speaks volumes. People that argue against cleaning up our act relative to pollution cannot claim to be friends of the earth.

Posted in Alternative Energy, CO2 Emissions, China, Coalburners, Conservation, Earth, Energy Infrastructure, Environment and Jobs, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Green Construction, Health, Industry, Oil Industry, Oil Lobby, Pollution, You Tube | 2 Comments »

Imported Chinese Drywall is Toxic

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Is China trying to kill us or what? First the toxic baby toys, then bad pet food, after that melamine was found in baby formula from China, and now toxic drywall.

The drywall in question isn’t anything the do-it-yourselfer needs to worry about. You can’t purchase the stuff from Home Depot or Lowes. The Chinese drywall was imported in bulk for use by contractors between 2004 and 2007 for 50,000 homes in 40 states. So how do the new homeowners know their drywall is toxic? They can’t stand to sit in their homes for the smell and the fact that it makes them cough.

I watched the report about toxic drywall from China on this morning’s Good Morning America (ABC). The couple that was interviewed have a 3,000 square foot home that forces them to stay outside—a lot. Sulfuric acid is the culprit. It smells like rotten eggs. It leaches out of the drywall eventually forming a black soot or tarnish on metal surfaces because sulfuric acid corrodes metal and electrical wiring. Eventually this couple’s A/C and other electrical appliances malfunctioned. They are looking at a total rip out of all the drywall in their house as well as inspection of all exposed metal in both the electrical and plumbing.

The health issues aren’t any better. Sulfuric acid mists are considered carcinogenic or cancer causing. If it were me, I would pitch a tent before living in the house depicted on GMA today. Smelling sulfuric acid is one thing, breathing it another.

What a mess—50,000 homes! In these economic times when we have abandoned homes galore, at least 50,000 extra homes will more than likely be temporarily abandoned as well because of yet more bad Chinese imports.

If you have a problem with sooty looking wiring in your new home, appliances like your A/C and water heater going on the fritz, and smell a rotten egg aroma, you may have a big, big problem.

Quite frankly, whenever I pick up food or any number of things that say imported from China anymore, I simply put them back. Price is not everything. Nothing replaces my health, and I still don’t trust that communist regime that has lately imprisoned Tibetan monks again for rebelling against China’s hostile takeover of their country. This is the kind of news that needs to hit the airwaves more than not. We simply should not be doing business with the devil.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=7146929&page=1

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Posted in China, Health, Industry | No Comments »

China’s Rush to Save the Yangtze as Water Supply Dwindles

Friday, January 16th, 2009

 

China may be running out of water. No surprise there. I think it was two years ago that I watched an hour-long presentation by Chinese environmentalists that showed the situation in China’s waterways. Bad stuff, all polluted. I read an article from Asia Times that’s from 2003 about the way the Chinese have devastated their country and explained the history of China’s terrain.

 

At one time China was much warmer and wetter. Animals that we normally associate with Africa existed there. But their growing population repeatedly cut down forests, and drained marshy areas to expand. Now China is rapidly headed toward a desert like existence. I reported quite some time ago that the Gobe desert is currently only 100 miles outside of Beijing.

 

China has already invested billions of dollars to redirect a river in the south toward Beijing even though that river is polluted. This plan uproots 400,000 people also. The recent movement to improve China’s water supply is massive. I suspect this might be why China has been helping Africans—a lot. China says it’s sincere. I think the Chinese are scoping out a place to go. China’s historical climate and terrain was like Africa’s. But we never hear much about China in Africa and probably won’t, until they are there. If they weren’t communist it wouldn’t be too bad but…

 

China is an example to the world on how not to treat the environment, over lumber, over build, over populate, and pollute. It can leave a population high and dry down the road, or should I say river.   

 

Read more about China’s efforts a little too late: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-15-01.asp

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH26Ad01.html

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/16/content_873767.htm

 

 

Posted in China, Climate, Conservation, Drought, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Weather/Climate | 1 Comment »

Iran, Brazil, China, and Israel Lead the Charge for Alternatives to Gasoline

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

 

Unbelievable isn’t it? The Washington Post ran the article about Iran’s mandate to its “domestic automakers to make ‘dual-fuel’ cars that can run on both gasoline and natural gas, a crash program to convert used vehicles to run on natural gas, and a program to convert Iranian gas stations to serve both kinds of fuel. According to the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles, more than 100 conversion centers have been built throughout the country: Iranians can drive in with their gasoline-only cars, pay a subsidized fee equivalent to $50 and collect their newly dual-fuelled cars several hours later.”

 

What a novel idea to switch the cars over AND create the filling stations, AND conversion centers at the SAME TIME.

 

Then there is Brazil who was no better off than we are now, importing 80 percent of its oil supply in the 70’s. Since then, Brazil has switched to its own oil, which is used to “insulate” the country’s economy from the pain of spiking oil prices. Even so, this year more sugar-based ethanol will be sold in the country than gasoline, which is the goal, to get off of gasoline altogether.

Meanwhile, China is moving toward methanol, which is made from wood grain alcohol. There are many methanol plants currently under construction. And China is set to produce flex fuel cars for that methanol. The nice thing about methanol as the article stated is that: “it can be made from natural gas, coal, industrial garbage and even recycled carbon dioxide captured from power stations’ smokestacks — an elegant way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

It looks like China whose smoggy environment is a source of concern for the Olympics has got plans to use up all that filth and fuel their cars with it. That’s really one up on us, and pretty much everyone else.

Finally, Israel is going to electric cars with “hundreds of thousands of recharging points planned to be erected throughout the country. Israeli motorists, the government hopes, will be able to swap their batteries in a matter of minutes at dedicated stations or recharge them at home or at work.” Hmm, stop at a station and swap out a battery—never thought of that.

The Washington Post went on to say that: “Policies such as ‘drill more’ and ‘drive smaller cars’ all keep us running on petroleum. At best, they buy us a few more years of complacency, while ensuring a much worse dependence down the road when America’s conventional oil reserves are even more depleted — whether or not we drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

Looks like Al Gore’s challenge to change within a decade isn’t ridiculous. We’ve just been fed another fat lie by political forces working with the oil industry about what we can and cannot do, and we fell for it again. We need a big dose of street smarts in this country, or a kick in the pants.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303250.html


 

 

 

 

  

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Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, Automobile, CO2 Emissions, China, Conservation, Environmentalism, Green Products, Olympics, Pollution | 1 Comment »

White House Blocks EPA From Posting New Health Assessments of Hazardous Chemicals

Monday, June 16th, 2008

 

My 85-year-old mother asked me why there aren’t as many stars at night? I told her; to begin with, it has to be a clear night to see a bunch of stars. She said it seems when she was young there were a lot of starry nights. She’s intently watching the skies over Monroe to see if we have any clear nights, and how many stars are visible.

 

She thinks there aren’t as many clear nights because of pollution. My mother also remarked that some of her friend’s children were down from northern Michigan for a visit and it was quite noticeable to them that our skies are different, not as clear, even in the daytime.

 

I’m still wondering when the EPA is going to release reports about all types of things in our air, water, and land mass. It’s the same old stall or obstruction used by the Bush Administration against the environment for 8 years. I witnessed the put-off again on the news today when President Bush, during his talks in Britain with Gerald Brown, said that the U.S. would embrace environmentalism when China and India agree to the same pact or “whatever the U.S. does just won’t be affective.”

 

What a crock. First of all the U.S. only has 300 million citizens compared to both China and India with over one billion citizens each, yet the U.S. holds its own creating one quarter of earth’s total pollution. I think we could make quite a big dent in cleaning up the environment without China and India along for the ride. Has this administration ever heard the term, leading by example? Besides India is making huge strides by using their pollution for methane production to fuel their cooking and lighting needs. Bio Tech India has both a portable and permanent models of residential bio mass digesters. Just feed the digester food scraps and it produces methane gas to burn. Bio Tech India is also working on incorporating human waste into the works. India is already using the cow dung from its sacred cows for methane and energy production. Just think of all the fuel we could get from doggy parks, and litter boxes.

 

So it’s the same old song and dance from Bush. I really didn’t expect much more from his regime, but then I read an article on ENS website that congress is wondering about the big stall on reports about clean air, water, and land too, and what it’s costing us health wise.  It seems Congress “questioned the health effects of a new White House policy that delays the completion and release of chemical assessments into a public database maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

 

There it is, the purposeful stall from the Bush regime that delays the release of assessments that inevitably affect our health in a bad way, but no doubt help some big polluter down the line. I’m starting to feel like a Polar Bear more and more all the time.

 

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-12-093.asp

 

 

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Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, Bush Administration, CO2 Emissions, China, EPA, Environmental Legislation, Environmental News Service, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Health, Monroe Pollution | 2 Comments »

Bush to Allow Even More Imported Chinese Food Into U.S.

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

The Bush Administration wants to allow even more food imports from China, specifically chicken. They are working on a proposal to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold in the United States. There is a loophole in regulations and store labels do not have to indicate where the poultry is produced. Nice huh?

It seems like every time we turn around our illustrious president enacts the opposite of good judgment. After all the pet food scares, and tainted fish from China, one would expect our leadership to enact regulations to protect the citizens of our country. But the opposite happens more than not. Why is it we do business with the tyrannical communist Chinese, but embargo communist Cuba? Is there a distinction? I would like to know what it is. Both are purported to be the enemies of freedom. Isn’t this a slap in the face to all the thousands of soldiers that did battle against the spread of communism in years past? Now we court them.

If we learned anything from the Godfather trilogy it is to keep our enemies close, but for Pete’s sake don’t eat their food. The people are fine. It’s the government. They are oppressive, torturous, cold-blooded killers. We hear very little of what they’ve done to Tibet. The real and new Dalai Lama, who is a little boy, disappeared long ago. No one knows his whereabouts. The ruthless Chinese regime has replaced him with one of their own as a facade. They have replaced many of the Tibetan monks with their own and brandish them in public as if no one knows there lie.  If I related what they have done to the many monks and nuns of that peaceful religion you would think I was relating stories from the 1950’s, when communism was known for what it really is, a ruthless regime of murderous torturers without conscience.

Talk about crimes against humanity. We invade Iraq against the cold-blooded Hussein regime, and make buddies out of communist China. The paper recently had an article on the United States of China. We’ve borrowed way too much money from this enemy; something else Michael Corleone would not do.  

China has marched on Tibet, and has already begun to ruin what was once the most pristine part of the world, protected for centuries by a peaceful Buddhist community at the top of the world. China has polluted its own environment beyond quick repair and has realized the potential to tap the resources in the Himalayan Mountains. Our news media documented a new train, a real marvel of engineering that the Chinese have built to the top of Tibet. This area used to take so much trouble to get to; it remained a sacred, clean, untouched area for centuries. No more. Hoards of tourists are going up there now, polluting an ecosystem that is every bit as important to our world as the Amazon jungle.

China also tried to march on Taiwan again recently. Something that never made the news but our military knew about it and stationed ships in the China Sea. I’ve heard and remember the answer communist China has given to our government more than once regarding their interest in the oil fields in Iran, their move on Taiwan, and their destruction of Tibet: “Do not interfere.” Is this a warning of what’s to come in the future?

In the light of becoming more and more indebted to this merciless enemy, and doing more and more business with them, I urge anyone reading this to read the whole story of China’s persecution of Tibet called “The End of Tibet” at:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/13247913/the_end_of_tibet.

Pass the story along to everybody and anybody. We have got to stop our increasingly disturbing close relationship with this brutal regime. And the only way our big business and government is going to do that is if we raise cane about it, above everything else. You think we have a problem with terrorism, wait until this sleeping giant really wakes up. Our relations with China have gotten way out of hand, way too fast.

Posted in Bush Administration, China, Food, Food Supply Contamination, Imported Foods, Poultry | 1 Comment »

I’ve Gotta Thank China

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

All the ruckus over Chinese imports, especially food, may have caused many of our own food producers to rush to change their packaging to assure the American public that American food is fine. I got a kick out of the packaging on some popular American brands of chicken at the grocery store today. They assure 100% chicken with no antibiotics or additives in big bold letters on the packaging.

Does that mean there were antibiotics and additives in their before? Or is our food industry worried that now that we’re nosey and picky about imports we might be looking over everything with a discerning eye. Like I said, I’ve quit eating pigs and cows until they roam the farm or range as free spirits again, er um, if we have any ranges left. Eleven states are burning now. Up two more states since the last time I blogged about fires.

But chicken and turkey what about them? I’ll tell you, they live horribly in deplorable conditions until they are killed and brought to the store all packaged up with labels assuring us they are without antibiotics or additives. No antibiotics in the conditions I’m going to explain is a little frightening quite frankly. A good dose might go a long way to staving off what might be ailing the poultry we eat after they live their short lives in hell.

Here’s a little excerpt and the website where a lone writer ventured to see for himself what a typical industrial sized chicken farm is like. Brace yourself. It’s not all that much better than the Smithfield Foods expose another reporter from Rolling Stone researched that I blogged about as ” Pig Poo Who Knew?” Michael Specter of the New Yorker said:

‘I was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe…. There must have been thirty thousand chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me. They didn’t move, didn’t cluck. They were almost like statues of chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every minute of their six-week lives that way.’


Lovely huh? I have to thank China for bringing curiosity about the food we eat to millions of Americans—finally.  Pay attention. Boycott if you feel the need. It would go a long way as a wake up call to the meat packing business in this country. I’ve pretty much gone vegetarian and it doesn’t bother me a bit. My grocery bill is cheaper too. And whenever there is a recall on any meat, I don’t have to sweat. I don’t eat any of it.
 
The FDA only has the capacity to inspect 1% of all our imports. And their funding has been cut, the war you know. So where does that leave them with our food? Specter reported about 30,000 chickens in one spot. You honestly think we have enough FDA to inspect all our farms and do it well?
 
We need some big reforms in this country. Chinese tainted food imports are just the start. The last largest 3 recalls were all home produced meat folks, not imports. Get informed. Contact your reps. Some things gotta change. Myself, I’m having Morning Star Farms Prime Grillers for burgers these days. They’re tasty, and it didn’t require that a living thing suffer in hell before the slaughter. Until chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows are allowed a normal life on a farm again where they have a pen, a pasture, are allowed to bear young in livable conditions, and eat normal food, they won’t be on my plate. For more info on chicken farming: http://www.chickenindustry.com/. 

Posted in Bush Administration, CAFO's, China, FDA, Farm Animals, Farms/Farming, Federal Government, Food, Food Supply Contamination, Hormones in Food, Imported Foods, Legislators, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply | 3 Comments »

Tainted Food Imports

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007

So there is a beef and seafood recall in Michigan and everyone is up in arms about imported food from China. Their catfish is full of antibiotics. This is laughable because ours is full of PCB’s from its food source. That was on the news years ago. I know. I love farm raised catfish and remember well my options: farm raised equal PCB’s, ocean caught equals mercury. Now I have a third choice. With China’s catfish I get antibiotics. I guess our concern is what quantity of harmful substance is in our food. Is this not a pitiful situation? It never occurs to anyone that these things shouldn’t be there at all? I’m waiting for a national expose on our industrialized farms. I feel like a hypocrite so many times when I watch the media get in a dither over substandard imports while ignoring our own shortcomings. We’re throwing stones a lot lately.

As far as China’s use of antibiotics, our industrial farm raised meat is full of it along with hormones. You don’t honestly think a baby cow or pig ripped from their mother as soon as possible and confined for the rest of their life in a bin where they can’t turn around or scratch themselves, while standing above fumes from the cesspools below where all the droppings, afterbirth, babies that have fallen through the slats, and pesticides that have doused the animals are drawn upward by large exhaust fans, isn’t sick? Heck, they are traumatized and many are barely alive before they become our food. They have to be shot up with antibiotics in this environment. And we think Korean’s are barbaric for traumatizing dogs as meat before eating them. We do it all the time.

Our poor food animals chew on the metal of their bins out of frustration. This is a hell we allow animals to live in; the same lovely farmyard animals we like to introduce our kids to on petting farms. If those kids only knew the hell sweet little “Charlotte the Pig” endured before being slaughtered … This is not right. It’s very hypocritical especially when on the other end of the media it’s been reported that pigs are up on the intelligence scale with dolphins and elephants. They are beyond the intelligence of the Korean dog evidently but are next weeks sickly pork chops anyway. But then again we shouldn’t expect much, we don’t treat each other well either, another whole spectrum of hypocrisy.

If you think, I’ll just eat chicken and turkey; think again. Poultry doesn’t fare any better. Many birds are crammed into one little cage, where they can’t stand or spread their wings, and peck each other horribly out of sheer frustration. The cages above pollute the cages below. The visions we have of farms where animals are in a yard, a pen, or pasture to roam have all but disappeared. The petting farm is a facade of what America’s farms used to be. It will take a monumental movement by people to stop the way our food is raised or should I say tortured to death. Industrialized farming is so wide spread the idea of reversing it is daunting. We’ve used up quite a lot of farmland at a rapid rate with urban sprawl and congress of late has decided bio fuel should be the front-runner for alternatives to gasoline. So available land will go to corn and we will deal with imports.

Pay attention to the new Farm Bill. Call our congress people often. The movement for change must start somewhere. Congress is presently involved with this bill so it will be a timely e-mail or phone call if you do so now. Act out, for a change or nothing will improve. The farming conditions we have in this country are deplorable, immoral against living things, harmful to our environment and us, and shameful for this nation. 

Posted in Alternative Energy, Alternative Energy Sources, Animals in Peril, CAFO's, China, Conservation, Corn By-Products, Environmentalism, Ethanol, FDA, Farm Animals, Farm Bill, Farms/Farming, Food, Food Supply Contamination, Health, Hormones in Food, Imported Foods, Industry, Meatpacking Industry, Morality, Nature, Pollution, Poultry, Smithfield Foods, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply, e-coli | 1 Comment »